I love Ant as much as the next guy; I really do. I think he’s the face of this franchise. One day, I think he’s gonna lead us to the promised land. But are we sure he’s our best player with a healthy KAT? You can’t win this league without having a great 1-2 punch. Just look across the league: Maxey/Embiid, Sabonis/Fox, Bron/AD, Book/KD, Tatum/Brown, Jokic/Murray. The point is, there is no reason these guys shouldn’t be a top 10 duo for the next 5 years. So instead of trying to move KAT every time he has a bad game, focus on his strength’s it’s annoying. Just enjoy the ride.
Thoughts?
I based my desire to trade him on the same factors every time. His defensive liability, his maturation, and his foul trouble. You’re not winning a title when your second best player gives up an efficient 20ppg, isn’t even a factor in a quarter of transition plays because he’s busy crying to the ref about a foul that doesn’t exist, and isn’t on the floor for the final 6 minutes of every other game.
The foul trouble is the biggest one, it’s utterly agonizing to watch it happen, you absolutely cannot be without one of your star players during crunch time as often as we have been with him, you will never advance in the playoffs. He’s averaged over 4 FPG over the last two playoff series’ and fouled out of game 4 and 5 last year, unacceptable. And even if he doesn’t foul out, you can’t play proper defense when you have 5 fouls and 8 minutes remaining in the game.
Like everyone I love what I’ve seen from him so far this season, but this isn’t the first time he’s had stretches where all these things are good, he’s always fallen back to his old habits. We need this KAT to stay permanently. If he regresses again we are not making it out of the first or second round and I’d say this is his last season to show us he can be a composed player.
This team goes as KAT goes.